10 Shocking And Sad Facts About Palm Oil

As you might have noticed, palm oil has been drawing a considerable amount of attention recently with Media, environmental organizations, politicians and even common folks taking a critical view at the issues related to its production. Palm oil itself is not the problem; it’s just an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm and to a lesser extent the American oil palm and the maripa palm. The cause of all the fuss and controversy is the farming and manufacturing practices associated with the oil. As palm oil has been massively used in commercial food industry all over the world, the high oil yield of the palm trees has encouraged wider cultivation, leading to the clearing of forests in many parts of the world (particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia) in order to make space for oil palm monoculture. This has resulted in significant losses of the natural habitat for a number of animal and plant species, many of which are critically endangered. Yet, many people are still not aware of the heartbreaking consequences of unsustainable palm oil production. Take a closer look with these 25 Shocking And Sad Facts About Palm Oil.

10

Palm oil is extremely high in saturated fat. One tablespoon of palm oil contains as many as 55 percent of the daily recommendation of saturated fat.

Source: www.onegreenplanet.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org

9

Several studies have linked palm oil to higher risks of cardiovascular diseases and ischemic heart disease deaths (68 deaths per 100,000 increase).

Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: pixabay.com

8

Palm oil is not used in food industry only. Today, abound 50 percent of all the goods we use every day contain palm oil, from processed foods to candles, cosmetics, washing detergents and “bio-fuels”.

Source: www.rainforest-rescue.org, image: en.wikipedia.org

7

Palm trees harvested for the oil need high temperatures and humidity to grow and fruit, which is why they flourish in rainforest areas.

Source and image: en.wikipedia.org

6

According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared every hour to make way for palm oil production.

Source: saynotopalmoil.com, image: commons.wikimedia.org

5

One of the reasons why palm plantations are so large is because every oil palm that is planted needs over 3 m (10 ft) diameter clear around each tree.

Source: palmoilinvestigations.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org

4

Palm oil is also produced in regions such as Central and West Africa or Central America but is in Malaysia and Indonesia where the vast majority of the oil is produced. In fact, just these two countries account for around 90% of the entire world palm oil production.

Source: palmoilinvestigations.org, image: flickr.com

3

Up to 80% of the total deforestation in Indonesia is reported to be performed illegally.

Source: en.wikipedia.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org

2

Burning of the forests to clear land for cultivation has even made Indonesia the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases (after China and the US).

Source and image: en.wikipedia.org

1

Clearing just one hectare of peat forest can release up to 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Indonesia has already cleared over 10 million hectares of these forests.

Source: www.onegreenplanet.org, image: commons.wikimedia.org